(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Ramallah, July 19 (QNA) - Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) demanded the international community to exert diplomatic and political pressure on Israel to immediately release bodies of Palestinian martyrs in its custody, without any preconditions.
Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat wrote in letters sent to foreign ministers of US, Russia, and EU countries, and to the UN Secretary-General that withholding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs is a deliberate Israeli political decision which comes under the blackmail of Palestinian people and as a form of collective punishment against them.
He wrote that all possible efforts were exerted in cooperation with partners in the international community, in order to take concrete and immediate actions to resolve this sensitive issue which affects the dignity of Palestinian people, martyrs' families, religious traditions and the Palestinian culture.
He stressed that Israel's withholding of bodies is a flagrant violation of the principles of human rights and the Geneva Conventions and it is also equal to psychological torture and raises the tension.
Israel still illegally holding the bodies of 12 Palestinian martyrs, Erekat said. (QNA)